Two generations of family hauling work in Kensington, years learning Philadelphia’s rowhome streets, then launched his own operation in 2015 built around a written schedule. Still the one sequencing the morning runs.
Universal Moving Services
Military-precision PHILADELPHIA, PA movers, fully licensed and insured, running exact-window jobs since 2015
About Universal Moving Services — Philadelphia, PA
Rowhome-precision movers working Philadelphia, PA and the whole Delaware Valley
DISCLAIMER: When I send this form I confirm I am 18 or older and agree to let Universal Moving Services reach me by phone, text, or email about the move details I provided. This does not commit you to booking anything.
★
5/5 from 24 reviews
11+
Years taking care of Philadelphia families
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No-cost estimate — ever
How it started
How growing up in Kensington turned into a moving company
I am Ray Doherty. I grew up in Kensington, in a family that had been hauling furniture and running odd jobs around the neighborhood for two generations before Universal Moving Services was ever my own. Moving a household is a lot like planning a delivery route on a deadline: map it out, brief the crew, and be there when you told the customer you would. That habit runs the whole operation, and it is why most new customers still hear about us from someone down the block.
Before my name was on the truck, I spent years delivering furniture for a regional outfit, seeing up close what goes wrong on a Philadelphia move: a quote that crept upward after the crew was already on-site, a walk-up nobody measured ahead of time, a fill-in weekend crew rolling up two hours late to somebody’s settlement. I kept a running list of everything I would do differently. Universal Moving Services is that list, turned into an actual plan.
We opened the doors in 2015 around a handful of rules I still will not bend for a cheaper-looking ad. You get the rate in writing before we touch a box. The crew on your job is a Universal Moving Services employee we hired and trained, not a rented van and two strangers. When a settlement date slips, our storage holds your things instead of leaving them on a truck outside your new place. And the phone gets answered by a person — usually Angela in the office, or me when I am out running trucks.
Years in, I am still the one laying out the morning’s stops, working Philadelphia’s one-way rowhome streets and the Schuylkill Expressway into the schedule so the truck is parked before the parking gets impossible. Moving day already comes with enough surprises. Our job is the boring part: the price you agreed to, the crew you were told about, and a truck at your curb inside the window we promised.
The record so far
The Philadelphia track record, in four quick figures
Since 2015
11 years of moves run on a written schedule across the Delaware Valley
4,000+ moves
from Fishtown walk-ups to Main Line estates with a long driveway
No day-labor, ever
each mover is a background-checked employee on our payroll, never day labor
5★ rating
across 24 checked reviews from Philadelphia customers
What does not change
Four rules that do not bend, job to job
What we quote is what you pay
You get one number in writing, and that is what you pay. A third-floor walk-up, a narrow alley delivery, a long carry from the only parking spot on the block — it is all worked into the price ahead of time. Nothing gets added once the truck is parked outside your door.
No outside trucks, ever
The trucks are ours and so is everyone riding in them. Your move never gets handed off to an outside crew, and we are not scrambling to find bodies the morning of. Whoever Danny schedules for your job is who steps out of that truck.
The one-of-a-kind pieces get the patient hand
A rowhome staircase built for a different century, a piano that has been in the family three generations, a marble-top table nobody wants scratched — these get handled slow and deliberate, padded where they start, never left sitting on a hot truck bed. That is simply how this crew works.
A real Philadelphia address
Our yard is off Aramingo Ave in Philadelphia, and you are welcome to stop by. We are fully licensed and insured, hold US DOT and MC authority for anything crossing a state line, and run our own climate-controlled storage. Before the crew loads a single dolly, Angela has usually already cleared your building’s paperwork and confirmed parking.
Who actually shows up
The crew that actually shows up at your door
Dial us and a Philadelphia desk answers, not a routing center three states over. Everyone below has a hand in your Greater Philadelphia job — quoting it, scheduling it, hauling it — whether it lands on a quiet Tuesday or the busiest Saturday of the month. Most have stuck with Universal Moving Services for years.
Runs the phones and the paperwork, clears building COIs before crew day.
Routes every truck around Philadelphia traffic and bridge congestion.
Specializes in tight rowhome stairwells and narrow-street parking.
Handles piano and safe moves, trained on rigging and skid boards.
Verify us first
Paperwork you can check before you book a thing
We run this operation ourselves — our own trucks, our own payroll crew, no phone-number auction to third-party bidders. Check the paperwork below, then book directly with us:
- Licensed & fully insured — Pennsylvania requires a household-goods carrier to hold PUC authority, and every local Philadelphia job runs under that authority plus our insurance.
- DOT & MC authority on record — this is what lets us legally carry your household across a state line, whether that is a run to New York, DC, or further out.
- $1M in cargo coverage — the policy rides with your shipment door to door, covering everything from the first box off the dolly to the last one set down inside your new place.
- Never left the neighborhood — run out of our Philadelphia yard, working the whole Delaware Valley straight through every season since 2015.
Our service map
Towns and neighborhoods our trucks work
There is a Universal Moving Services truck somewhere on I-76 most days of the week. Tap a town below for the local rundown, or text over your starting ZIP and destination — a written flat rate comes back to your phone the same day.
See why Philadelphia neighbors keep handing Ray the keys.
Reach out and we'll pin a written flat rate to the date you have circled. One number, no in-person walkthrough needed, nothing extra once the truck pulls up.
Get my number →One flat rate, zero curbside surprises